Traveling around town

Thursday letters: Traveling around town

Copyright 2014: Houston Chronicle

Updated 6:42 pm, Wednesday, October 1, 2014

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Rail hopes

Regarding "High hopes" (Page B5, Tuesday), it seems the editorial is looking well beyond the pressing need for an infrastructure that would utilize rail as an option locally before ever embarking on a state-wide rail system for high-speed rail travel.

Truthfully, the idea of using the existing rail systems that spread out from the downtown area, has been poo-poohed so much by others in the past, that most have given up on the idea. And since a number of lines have been removed already, the idea gets diminished as time goes by.

But just looking at the existing rail lines to the Kingwood area, to Alvin, to Freeport and, perhaps, even to Eagle Lake, and if there were commuter trains from those areas, traffic would be reduced on many freeways. There would be less pollution from cars, and there would be an economic boom in some of those smaller communities as new residents took up residence there.

Having traveled by train in Japan daily when I worked in Yokohama, I can assure readers that trains are a great way to travel, especially when they are on time and on schedule.

Though I would like to see a high-speed train system between Houston and Dallas, there is no reason to have a competition of sorts with California, because California can't afford to compete with the great state of Texas.

Heck, if it wasn't for Southwest Airlines, there wouldn't be air service between most parts of California.

Lawrence Keen, Pearland

Cycling around

Regarding "There's no free ride on the roads of Texas" (Page D1, Wednesday), keep in mind that 50 percent of all trips are three miles or less. By improving the network of safe bikeways, particularly in urban areas, Texas will see an increase in the number of people who chose to cycle. This in turn reduces the wear and tear on the roads, reduces congestion and improves air quality.

All Texans benefit as more people are healthy and health care costs decline. BikeHouston is a non-profit with a mission of promoting safe cycling and improving the quality of life in Houston. We are uniting cyclists and working hard to drive change.

I read a lot of comments about Houston traffic. Let's use what we have more efficiently. Here are a couple of ideas that will help relieve traffic.

No. 1: Open the Katy HOV lanes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is no need to operate these lanes like the reversible HOV lanes elsewhere around town. Why do we need to concentrate all that traffic in the main lanes? The concrete has been bought and paid for. Open the HOV lanes, make them free and folks with two-plus in the vehicle will use them.

No.2: Make the Fannin South Park & Ride lot free, like all the other Park & Ride lots.

If it was free, a lot more people would park there and ride the train. It would relieve congestion around the Texas Medical Center and around NRG Park. The present pay-to-park system is cumbersome to use and expensive.

These ideas would cost very little to implement. I am sure others around town have other ideas that would bring some relief. Let's be smarter about using what we have.